Air Passenger Duty refund - Air China

Almat62

I booked and paid for flights with Air China last November for travel in March/April 2016. I paid the Air Passenger Duty (APD) on the appropriate fares at the time. Subsequently the UK government abolished APD for children aged 12 to 15 travelling in the Economy Class cabin on or after 1 March 2016, and it is my understanding that I should be due a refund of APD assuming the previous criteria is met. However, Air China are refusing to make any refund stating that the tickets were purchased and issued in 2015 and therefore no refund is due. Therefore I would like to know:-
1) Am i correct to think that APD should be refunded for any passenger aged 12 to 15 travelling in the Economy Class cabin on or after 1 March 2016, irrespective of when the ticket was purchased and issued?
2) Where can I take this case to force Air China to make the refund?

Alan_Bowen

The change in tax was announced a year ago, many airlines therefore have not been charging the tax for the age group concerned, you need to look at your eticket and see if there is a difference in fare between your fare and taxes and that of your son/daughter. I would have expected by November last year, the systems would have been in place with most airlines to avoid the need for refunds, as the administration costs for thousands of small refunds would be enormous, so I suspect they are right

Almat62

The itinerary and receipt I have clearly shows that APD has been applied to the cost of the passenger who is under 16, hence the reason for my request for a refund. Air China's email response has consistently been " We have advised you we do not refund APD on tickets issued last year 2015 .
We have no instructions to refund APD tickets issued last year 2015" From my perspective Air China clearly are missing the point that it is irrelevant when the tickets were issued, and that APD is paid by the airline to HMRC on flight departure. Therefore a refund is due. Upon consultation with the UK CAA they also believe this is correct and will take up the complaint.

The_Phantom

I had exactly the same issue with AA

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5405421

Eventually they did refund me, I have no idea why. One day I had £73.- credited back to the card I used to pay with. They did not contact me or explained why they changed their mind about it.

If Air china has got a registered office in the UK you can also potentially go through Trading Standards or even the Small Claims Court, but would do that after you have used the tickets to make sure they don't cancel them.

First port of call maybe the CAA though as you are doing now.

Almat62

Thought I would provide an update following my little dispute with Air China.

Basically the CAA came back after just over 5 months and said:-
We have contacted Air China about your complaint and asked them to reassess it. In the reassessment process, airlines must provide information to the CAA to justify their position. However, I regret to inform you that your airline has not responded to us with the information we need.
The CAA receives complaints and assists passengers in trying to resolve them. However, we do not have the legal power either to force the airlines to respond to us, or to impose a solution which is binding on the airline. We are not an ombudsman scheme, and any view that we express on a particular matter is not legally binding.
We are very sorry that, despite the time taken to get to the bottom of your case, due to the lack of response from Air China, we are unable to help you further in this matter.

Subsequently I made a claim via the small claims court (just search for "make a court claim for money" and simply fill out the online form. Lo and behold I received a cheque in the post several days later. So - moral of the story is, if you are in a similar situation and the airline is refusing to respond, just head straight off to the small claims court and don't waste any more effort & time. It is sad having to take such action, but at least the matter is now settled.

PeacefulWaters

Time to give the CAA or some other regulatory body real power.